Mike's Basses

In The Beginning..

My first bass was actually my old acoustic guitar tuned down an octave and minus all but two strings. It sounded terrible, but I started picking out songs on it while listening to the radio...whatever works, I guess.

First Bass

My first real four-string electric bass was a little Encore Japanese Jazz bass copy. It was a short scale and had these big rectangular chrome pick-ups. It sounded pretty bad, but it was much better than the detuned acoustic guitar! That bass has been disassembled and the parts are scattered hither and yon, but I think I still have the neck.

First REAL Bass

I realized that the little Encore was holding me back and decided it was time to get a real, long-scale good quality instrument. I had been playing this nice new tangerine-orange aluminum neck Kramer in the local music store adn really liked it. It had a great sound and felt nice, even if it was neck-heavy. I walked in one day and it was GONE! The store owner didn't seem to think anyone wanted it and sent it back. I soon found another even nicer Kramer, but it was a holiday weekend, so the banks were closed on Monday. It was sold by the time I went to the bank and returned on Tuesday afternoon.

All things happen for a reason, and the reason soon appeared in that same local music store. It was a beautiful black bass with a slightly unusual body shape, a simulated gold brushed-metal pickguard, an unbelievable off-center radius neck and carried the name Daion. The model was called the Savage, it sounded like I had always wanted a bass to sound; I began to pay down $400 and took it home on my 15th birthday. I had my first real bass.

Sorry about the B/W, but this is the best pic I have of the Savage. My college roommate took this and we developed it in the darkroom ourselves (and it shows!). The amp is my original Peavy Century series 120. This picture was taken in 1984. The Daion company only lasted about a year, but they made some VERY high quality instruments. This bass was stolen about 10 yrs later. If anyone has one of these Daion Savage basses in good condition, I would like to buy another.

AN UPDATE... I finally got another Daion bass in August of 2002. I didn't get a Savage, but the top of the line MK.XX-B, a thousand dollar bass in its day. I'm still looking for a BLACK Savage in good condition, though. For more info on Daion musical instruments, go to Daions Online, my new site devoted entirely to these fine instruments. Daions Online

The Black Spector and Red Fretless

When the Daion was stolen, I knew what I really wanted to replace it, but it wasn't going to be cheap. I had seen a US Air Force Jazz band in high school and the bassist was playing this drop-dead gorgeous, black, curvaceous thing that made my beloved Daion sound like a shoebox. He said it was a Spector and cost about $2000. Oh well...

After losing the Daion, I asked a local music store owner if he had seen one, he said they came around ocasionally and to check back. I bought a fill-in bass and waited. Sure enough, about 6 months later I was holding a black Spector. "How much?" I asked and cowered like a scared puppy waiting for the expensive answer. "500 bucks," he said. What a bargain! It was mine the next day and, until it too was stolen in November of 2000, was my main bass. The thieves also got my custom-built red fretless bass at the same time. For the first time in over twenty-five years I was without a bass.

The New Trio

The new trio consists of (left to right), a 1977 aluminum neck Kramer, a brand new Cort A-4FL fretless, and a two year old, but like new, Hamer Chapparral 12 string bass. Again, this is now a quartet with the addition of the Daion Power Mk.XX-B, see the details below.

I Finally Got One

The Kramer is almost identical, except for the color, to the one I had played years earlier. I found one in town, but I thought they were asking too much for it. They wanted $50 more than it cost new, so I hit the internet and found this one in Charleston, SC and got it for less than $250 including shipping.

It was in pretty rough shape when I got it, and just didn't feel right. I wondered if I had been "had." I was about to give up on it when I decided to check the neck with a straight edge.
I don't know how, but the neck had been bowed. I straightened the neck with a 12ton hydraulic press, machined a new aluminum nut for it, and scraped out some epoxy that had been put in the neck pocket in an attempt to shim the neck up.

Jackpot!! It plays just great now and has that clanky sound I love.

Cort A4FL

I felt kind of weird when I bought this bass for two reasons. I had never dealt with MARS, and the only Cort I could remember was that awful little Steinberger copy from the mid-80s.

I was very pleased with both MARS and this bass, though. I still prefer to do business with the smaller local shops, but noone else in town even had a fretless in stock. MARS had three, this one, an EL-CHEAPO Ibanez, and a $1000 Fender Jazz.

This bass was about $150 more than the cheap Ibanez, and about half the cost of the Fender. It has Bartolini pickups , an active five band EQ, and a fantastic thin wengewood neck. I think the neck, electronics and pickups would probably cost almost as much as the whole bass if bought aftermarket to refit a Fender body. If you want a nice fretless and don't have a huge amount of cash, I'd suggest you check this bass out.

The Monster

I remembered Tom Petersson of Cheap Trick playing a twelve string bass when I saw them in concert in 1984 and had seen Doug Pennick of King's X with one in about 1992, but had never really considered them anything but a gimmick.

I had a Chapman Stick that I was thinking about selling and just hit the net to see what they were worth. I never really saw one for sale, but there was a guy with this Hamer Chapparral 12 string who wanted to trade for a Stick. I dropped him a line and after a couple of e-mail exchanges, it was a done deal. The whole plan was to sell the Hamer and buy something else....should have never played it. I knew within three minutes that I had found something I didn't even realize I had been looking for.

Yes, the headstock is really that big, but it's not as bad in person as it looks in pictures. In fact, the whole bass has a kind of gentle giant quality about it.

It takes MUCH more pressure to fret than a four string, but it's just a matter of conditioning your left arm and hand to the required strength. I spent about a month with my forearm and wrist aching after the first five minutes, but now I can switch between the 12, the Kramer or the Cort just fine. The sound is just awesome and the neck is nearly identical to a very old Rickenbacker 4001 I once owned. The neck is very flat and, just like the Rick, has dual truss rods. It is a surprizingly light bass and is very well balanced, despite that headstock full of tuners.

I traded the Stick because it was just too different from a bass, but this thing, I now realize, is what I was expecting the Stick to be. The guy who I traded for it was trying to use it as a touchboard instrument and also was not happy. Both I and the guy who got the Stick are very happy with the trade.

Daion Power Mk. XX-B

I was a little dissapointed with the Kramer. I had never played one standing up and soon learned why they were never very popular... it is WAAAYYY too neck heavy. I had started looking around, thinking maybe I could find a used Spector or something. I did find a used Spector, but it was really more money than I could justify spending, now that I only play for kicks. Then one of the guys on the Bunnybass message board alerted me to an ebay auction posting of a bass I have drooled over since I first and last saw one in 1983, a Daion Power Mk.XX-B.

I placed a bid I figured wouldn't last long and held my breath. Days went by and nobody else countered my bid. Then in the last few minutes I realized that I was about to own a DAION!! Sure enough, noone else even bid one it.

I contacted the seller, Andrew Jackson (what a GREAT NAME!!) in Nashville TN to ask if I could just drive up there and pick it up instead of giving UPS the opportunity to destroy it in shipping. He was open to that, so I left for Nashville in the Z about an hour after the auction ended!

I was driving up to Nashville and the thought hit me... this is a neck through bass with P/J pickups and four control knobs, it would probably sound a LOT like my old Spector if I put a set of EMGs and the active electronics package in it! I found Andy's apartment complex, knocked on the door and there laid the case on the floor. "You want to check it out?" he asked... TWIST MY ARM!! I popped open the well worn case (after remembering the latch on the rear side...oh yeah, I remember that now!), and there it was... WITH A SET OF EMGS ALREADY INSTALLED.

This thing is actually a HUGE bass. It has a 35" scale, so the neck is longer than most, and the thinline body is enlarged a little to make it balance correctly. This bass is 47" long from the rear strap button to the tip of the headstock. It is as long as the Hamer 12 and only has two tuners on each side!
It's a lot lighter than it looks, though, and is perfectly balanced. It sounds just like the old Spector and plays a LOT better. I was never really impressed with the playablilty of the Spector. Thanks to Marty Hoffman for giving me the heads-up on it and Andrew for selling it to me, and also a big thanks for all the input he has given to the Daions Online site.

Noisemaker Supreme

My well worn Ampeg SVT rig in the practice room.

I started out with the previously pictured old Peavy 60 watt solid state amp, which was quite adequate for my earlier playing. When I started playing with Barking Tribe, I found I was going to have to defend myself from Kerry Pate's 100 watt Ampeg V-4 and matching 4x12" cabinet. I tried a few Fender amps and cabinets, and was pretty impressed with an Ampeg V-4B bass amp I borrowed one time, but they just didn't quite cut it. This was the answer.

The SVT is a good old solid tube amp, running six Sylvania 6550 power tubes, that is capable of making any guitar player beg you to turn it down. The cabinet houses eight ten-inch diameter speakers that have a crisp high end and enough bottom end to literally rattle a beer right off the bar at twenty paces. Two cabinets drop the impedence of the system so the amp will run well over 300 watts continuous. I have never had need for more than one cabinet, so far.

I was very lucky to have bought this rig at a time when tube amps were being upstaged by the new solid state gear; I could never afford to replace it now that the value has shot back up. The cabinet is a mid to late 70s model with dolly wheels on the back, which makes it much easier to move around. You want all the help you can get in the transportation department if you own an SVT!

The amp is one of the most sought after SVTs, a first series. This is a very old SVT, probably about 1969 and it has a TOTALLY different tone than any other I have ever played through. Note that it has toggle switches instead of rocker type switches, and the switches on the face are for power and polarity (it is ungrounded! two prong plug!), the standby switch is on the back side. Also the blue printing on the faceplate, four inputs, and the silver tweed cover are clues to its age.

This older amp has much higher gain that any later models. I usually play with the volume in about the 9:00 position and, even with Barking Tribe, never got close to having it in the vertical position. It is just brutally loud by 11:00. On the road I played with many other bass players who had SVTs and every one agreed that it had a better tone than the later black faced models or even later re-issues with the onboard graphic EQ.

It weighs about 75lbs and must be handled VERY GENTLY to keep from knocking the filaments out of the tubes (think about a light bulb in a table lamp that gets knocked over and you have the idea), so I pretty much insist on moving it myself, without assistance. I religiously warm it up for about five minutes prior to kicking it off standby and let it sit for at least 10 minutes after shutdown before I move it. When treated this way, it is superbly reliable and worry free.

Many folks tell me that it is just too big and too loud to be practical. Maybe, but I have owned quite a few smaller amps, and often wished I had more punch. I have never been in a situation that this amp couldn't handle!

Other Stuff I Have Owned

That's all the pics for now, but I also owned a few other nice and occasionally strange things in the past.

My fill-in bass while waiting for the Spector was another Hamer, a white Blitz Bass(Explorer body style)with LED fretmarkers. It was a great playing instrument and sounded good, too. I finally just got tired of hearing all the cracks about how I should be playing in Ratt or Bon Jovi and traded it for a custom built metallic red fretless with a solid rosewood neck and a set of P/J Seymour Duncan active elecs and pickups. They likely didn't make but a few of these, so it'll probably be worth a mint in the future. I probably should have kept that one.

Included in that trade was the first fretless I ever had/made/bought. I found a beat up 1965 Fender Jazz Bass with a broken and repaired headstock in the shop for $200. I took it home and played with it for a while, but it just didn't have the right tone or feel to me. I popped out the frets, filled the lines and stripped the back of the neck with 600grit sandpaper. Then added a BadassII bridge and a set of Seymour Duncan 1/4pounders to give it some bottom end. It finally made a fairly nice fretless, but the previously mentioned custom was much better all around. I can hear you Fenderphiles shrieking in horror. Don't worry, it was a clunker.

I also picked up an OLD Rickenbacker 4001 for $175 in 1986. The original logo-embossed laminated plastic cover for the trussrods, was missing and had been replaced with a plain white piece of plastic. It had a checkerboard binding and the serial number was only FOUR DIGITS. The bridge pickup was dead so I replaced it with one from a brand new 4001 that someone had left laying around the music store when they upgraded the factory pickups. Wow, what a bass! It didn't have a case and I was trying to carry it on the road. I didn't want to destroy it, so I finally sold it in about 1989 for the same price I bought it for. Still kicking myself for that one.

I also had the Chapman Stick. I actually traded a guy a 1974 Dodge Dart for that. The Stick was just too weird. Tony Levin has my undying respect, not only for his bassplaying, but for figuring out what to do with one of those things! The theives that stole my Spector and red fretless actually pulled the Stick out from under my bed, looked in the case, and left it laying there open in the floor! Morons probably left the most valuable instrument in the house and took the ones I really loved.

If you have any comments, or know of a Daion Savage, or ANY FRETLESS DAION for sale, e-mail me at the address on the home page. Back to Home